The first volunteer trail workday of the season at Red Rock Canyon Open Space will be spearheaded by the Garden of the
Goddesses Club Sunday, May 1.
The workday will be the first of four the club plans this summer in its efforts to build a roughly three-quarter-mile segment
through Sand Canyon (along the west portion of the 788.1-acre open space) in conjunction with Colorado Springs Parks.
Pre-registration is requested for volunteers. The workday will be from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., according to Shanti Toll, one of the
club leaders and a trained trail crew leader.
“We need lots and lots of people,” he said, noting that the maximum that can be accepted, based on availability of tools and
crew leaders, is about 100 people.
Volunteers will need to bring lunches and water. Light refreshments will be provided at the end of the day, Toll said.
Going south from the area near the parking lot off Ridge Road and Highway 24 the trail will gain altitude as it moves in and out
of trees and near some of the rock uplifts that Red Rock is known for. Some of the work will be technically challenging, with
structures required to stabilize the trail.
City Parks will provide tools and trail-design assistance.
Overall, Toll said the idea is to build a “walking trail, instead of hiking,” with the idea that it's not meant to get somewhere in a
hurry but to “get away from it all.”
The city's Red Rock master plans terms the prospective segment as the “Contemplative Trail.” The goal of the club's members is
that, as a result of their building the trail, it will come to be known as the “Garden of the Goddesses Trail,” Toll explained
His wife, Coreen Toll, had initially advocated to City Parks that the entire open space be given that name, as a way of honoring
feminine contributions to the region and society.
The other three club workdays are scheduled May 22, July 10 and July 30.
For more information or to pre-register, call 634-1810 or e-mail coreentoll@hotmail.com